In the early game, cities aren't even available, and then when they are available, there is probably no food to build them and so the AI just fills all the tiles with other buildings. If the AI ever did build farms, by the time it built them, all its tiles would be full anyway and thus it would have no room for cities.

Something like that, but:

From what I can tell from the moddable files and having worked with them some months ago, the AI does something like this:

The AI kind of has a shopping list (GovernorDefs.xml). There items are addressed like 'Manufacturing', 'ManufacturingHub', 'ManufacturingUnique'. These types are linked to the PlacementTypes in the 'ImprovementDefs'. The AI will pick the highest available item on its shopping list, select an improvement of the right PlacementType and build it in the spot witht he highest adjacency bonus for the improvement. '-Hub' and '-Unique' Types can actually replace normal types, so no the AI isn't helpless when the planet is full.

Farms and cities have the PlacementTypes 'Food' and 'Population'. 'Food' is not an item on the recent 'GovernorDefs.xml'.

It does not even consider building farms, and what few cities it considers, it is out of food for those.

So the issue is a disconnect between food as a global resource and population as a local resource? Or am I missing the boat here.

How does that then correlate with zuPloed's XML observations (and those of other players that just don't see a lot of farms on enemy planets)? Can you explain how farm building works if it's not determined by this "shopping list" in GovernorDefs.xml?

I feel like the game just gets more and more imbalanced with every patch. I think the Farms and Cities mechanic is cool, but I have had much higher populations in every game since this change. It's much easier to build up population with cities than it used to be with Farms.

1. I think it is a good thing for balance to increase the costs of cities. Given how powerful the population factor is now, increasing the opportunity cost of investing in lots of cities makes the choice more meaningful.

2. Could we get more detail on what the AI does now, and how that justifies the reduction of bonuses they're afforded? Pretty excited to see what they do.

3. I've definitely seen the AI build farms and cities. They just don't go out of their way to dedicate entire planet of two to food production, which some players do to build up a high number of cities. Maybe the AI could benefit from a dedicated food governor?

Synthetics should use Durantium in the same way Organics use food.....

Rather than a one time expense it should be a constant use based on population.... No per turn cost when TOTAL population is 5 or less... and then 2 durantium per turn per population point above that.... Research can lower that to 1 and then .5 or something.

soft walls and steps are so much better than hard stops that look and feel artificial.

**and yes I know the 2 per turn is rediculously expensive even on big maps or late game**